1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of refrigeration and, more particularly, to an ice crushing system for use in a refrigeration unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the art of refrigerators, particularly household refrigerators, it is common to provide an automatic icemaker within a freezer compartment or even a below freezing chamber provided in a fresh food compartment in order to produce ice cubes. It is also common to provide a system for dispensing the ice, such as through a dispenser exposed at the front face of the refrigerator. Generally, these systems provide for the automatic filling of one or more ice cube trays which are periodically emptied into a bin following a freezing period. From the bin, the ice can be delivered to the dispenser by the selective activation of a drive unit, such as a rotatable auger located within the bin. Most often, such ice dispensing systems incorporate a mechanism whereby the ice can be selectively crushed prior to reaching the dispenser.
In the industry, there has heretofore been proposed various different systems to accomplish this ice dispensing function. At least in one respect, these systems differ in the particular manner in which the ice can be crushed, with numerous types of ice crushing mechanisms having been proposed in the art. For example, it is known to provide multiple sets of crushing blades which rotate about a common axis with an auger wherein one of the blades sets is fixed for rotation with the auger and the other blade is freely rotatable about the common axis. When crushed ice is selected, the freely rotatable blade set is secured against rotation such that the cubes of ice are crushed between the two sets of blades. In another known system, an anvil member can be positioned in an ice delivery passage and cubes of ice can be crushed between the anvil member and a single set of blades which rotate with the ice delivery auger. Finally, it is also known to linearly shift a first set of ice crushing blades into an ice delivery path so that cubes of ice can be crushed between the first set of blades and a second set of blades which rotates with the delivery auger.
With each of these known systems, the blades are substantially planar and arranged parallel to each other. The distance between the blades establishes the degree to which the ice can be crushed. That is, a greater distance between the blades results in more coarse crushed ice pieces, while minimizing the distance establishes finer ice pieces. Unfortunately, certain minimum gap requirements are mandated in connection with the mounting of the blades given the associated tolerances and the need to avoid the blades becoming entangled and the overall mechanism breaking. With this in mind, it would be beneficial to provide a unique manner to enhance crushed ice consistency without major changes to an existing ice crushing system.